Catalytic tests for Catlab project

Dr. Zehua Li, Dr. Lukas Thum

To intensify long-term renewable energy storage and conversion and furthermore make an energy-efficient conversion to synthetic fuels and basic chemicals, within the framework of CatLab, this study will propose to develop novel thin film catalysts for hydrogenation at the time being and dehydrogenation in the near future, which will be measured in our designed thin film reactors.

The initial focus with regard to the catalytic measurement on thin-film Pd is acetylene hydrogenation as a probe reaction, which is an ideal solution to selectively convert the trace amount of acetylene to ethylene for polyethylene industry. Our preliminary result show the thin-film Pd has a very high activity and turnover frequency. Another focus of the catalytic measurement on thin-film catalyst is the endothermic release of hydrogen from hydrocarbons (e.g., propane), and hydrogen further reaction with CO/CO2 to produce long-chain alcohols. Inductive heating will be applied for direct energy input into the active phase of the catalyst for those reactions. All of these require the development of functional thin-film catalyst synthesis, specific reactor design, and catalysis measurement

Go to Editor View